Detroit resident Carla Jefferson brought her grandchildren to the Hantz Woodlands tree planting Saturday so that they could be part of the rebirth of her east-side neighborhood.

“We are attached to the community,” Jefferson said. “I was raised over here. I probably won’t be here 50 years from now, but hopefully they will and they can see what they started and watch it grow.”

After five years of debate and controversy, Detroit’s biggest urban agriculture venture got under way in earnest Saturday as about 1,000 volunteers planted 15,000 saplings over hundreds of vacant lots on Detroit’s distressed east side.

Trees planted were sugar maples, swamp oaks, bur oaks, white birch and flowering dogwoods. The saplings are pencil-thin and no more than a few feet tall at this point. The lots were scattered over several blocks near Belvidere and Goethe.

Volunteer Gloria Gibson, who lives on Baldwin near where Hantz Woodlands was taking shape Saturday, said: “This is my neighborhood and I want to bring it back. I want to see it beautiful.”

The idea came to life when millionaire businessman and resident of Detroit’s Indian Village community John Hantz first proposed creating a large urban farm growing and selling a variety of crops in 2009.

The proposal generated a storm of controversy over fears of a corporate takeover of Detroit’s landscape and that Hantz’s operation would drive out smaller community-based gardeners.

Finally in December 2012, the City Council voted 5-4 to allow the sale of about 140 acres of city-owned lots to Hantz Farms. The deal came with restrictions — Hantz is not allowed to sell anything he grows. So the Hantz Woodlands project evolved as a beautification project and a demonstration of what could be accomplished.

“We have to make it easier to do projects like this,” Hantz said Saturday. “We also have to get off the silver bullet idea. We have so many things we could use help on. Let’s get a lot more small projects. When they fail they’re not damaging and let’s ride our winners out of those.”

Even cleaning out the brush and debris in preparation for the tree-planting blitz has improved the neighborhood morale, Hantz said Saturday.

“It’s really a community deal happening today,” he said. “How many more people are out walking now? This will be the first summer they can walk to church instead of drive because they feel safe.”

A resident of the district, Ray Anderson, who has lived on Holcomb for 56 years, echoed Hantz’s enthusiasm.

“Oh man, it means everything,” Anderson said. “Compared to the way it was and the way it is now since John and his group have come in, it’s just fantastic. Gives you new hope for a better future for the city.”

Many of the volunteers were part of corporate sponsorship teams representing Carhartt, Alta Equipment and others, including Hantz’s own financial services network. But Hantz said about 200 of the estimated 1,200 volunteers who signed up were from the neighborhood.

“Hopefully, this gives people a little more momentum to stay with it and stay with your idea,” he said. “Anyone can do something easy. If we’re going to have a blight plan, you’ve got to be willing to stay the course.”

Eventually, if the city gives its approval, Hantz Woodlands could operate as a tree nursery, supplying saplings to other parts of the city. Harvesting the trees as mature timber is decades away.

Volunteer Amelia Sharpe of southwest Detroit said she volunteered because “I have to be out here. I’m here because of the trees. I’m here because of what they bring to the Earth. They help us breathe. They help us to live. They bring joy and peace and harmony to everyone, whether they’re aware of it or not.”